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Dengzhou city has a long history of planting tobacco. According to the Records of dengzhou city published in 1996, in the Ming Dynasty 15 (1642), Dengzhou introduced tobacco leaves from southern provinces, planted them in the champion, Liangzhuang and Zhang Cun for smoking and viewing, and then gradually developed to Wen Qu, west of the turbulent river and east of Houpo, which is the most important in Dengzhou. Flue-cured tobacco in my hometown can be roughly divided into two categories: the original variety was willow leaf tobacco (also known as willow leaf tobacco), and in the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu (190 1), because of learning from the experience of drying tobacco in Huanggang, Hubei Province (that is, the famous "Deng Pian" won the third prize of Panama World Expo and the first prize of the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry), some of them were changed to folding tobacco. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), tobacco production developed rapidly. Because of the good soil structure, long planting history and good quality of tobacco leaves, we have become an important part of the tobacco-growing areas along the Tuanhe River, one of the three major tobacco-growing areas in Dengzhou.
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At that time, tobacco planting in rural areas of Henan mainly depended on applying farmyard manure. Tobacco leaves are growing well, with Huang Liang leaves, and generally one person is taller. The cured tobacco leaves have good quality and high grade. Our brothers and sisters can be said to have grown up smelling tobacco leaves, and experienced the whole process from planting tobacco by their elders to curing tobacco. Of course, the bread here contains more fatigue and pain: how many mornings, our parents woke us up from our dreams, waded through the dew without praying, and went to the tobacco fields to catch insects for tobacco; How many people grit their teeth, and in the impenetrable tobacco field in hot summer, tree by tree patting the tobacco buds in order to ensure the growth of the main stems and leaves. Every time I smoke for a few hours, my head will faint. Black and bitter cigarette oil filled my two little hands, and I accidentally touched my lips, and suddenly felt very bitter. I still have a lingering fear when I think about it now.
Tired and heavy work includes brushing teeth, weaving, loading and unloading cigarettes. This mechanical work was repeated many times throughout the tobacco season. The first is to brush cigarettes. Brush off the right leaves at a time, add them to your armpits and pile them up on the ground. After each trip, the tobacco leaves on the left and right sides should be brushed, and several piles were piled between two rows and a half miles long. Every time, I wait until the whole tobacco leaf is brushed, then I move it out of the ground and pile it on the shelf car parked on the ground. The second job is knitting cigarettes. That is to say, after pulling the tobacco leaves home and unloading them to a relatively spacious venue, mother, eldest brother and elder sister weave the tobacco leaves from left to right with prepared bamboo poles nearly two meters long. There are about ten or twenty sticks in each round, and they often forget to eat and even work late. The third step, after the green tobacco leaves are woven (tied), they are put into the kang smoke stove (actually a house) of the production team. A rod of green tobacco leaves was sent by several people, put on the shelf in the furnace, leaving a reasonable space in the middle, and then sealed the door with a straw mat. The professional technicians of the production team light a fire, fill coal and cure tobacco through the exclusive furnace, just like an alchemist. Technician. After a certain period of time, we will cease fire and open the door. This is called smoking. That is, the roasted tobacco leaves are taken off the shelf one by one and sent out of the oven. Everyone in each family went out in turn and was taken home to pick and choose.
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Of course, what impressed me was picking up cigarettes, grading them and selling them. Generally, after tobacco leaves are baked, tobacco leaves are picked in a larger site according to the similarity principle and basic standards. When I was in the production team, I still remember a room with five men and women on the sidelines. Later, when the land was distributed to each family separately, it was all in my own yard or my family's land.
At that time, mom, big brother and big sister went into battle together, so we started from the first level and the second level to the last level (at that time, it was about 12 level, and it was good to have a few kilograms in the second or third level, basically at the fourth, fifth and sixth levels or even lower. Sometimes, because the quality of green tobacco leaves and the temperature of flue-cured tobacco are not well mastered, the dark ones are basically at the latter two levels, and the prices are basically not sold. Each pile is classified and palletized, and the whole room is filled with choking smoke and noisy noise. Occasionally someone is joking, which is an ornament of hard work; Of course, if the quality of tobacco leaves is poor and the color is dark, and the quantity of the first few grades is less than the price, the air will be dull.
The hardest thing is to load the cart. My mother dragged her six or seven miles on foot to Zhang Cun Street Tobacco Company to sell cigarettes (I was young at that time, but I was accompanied many times, mainly in charge of looking after cars, etc. ) I was tired, thirsty and thirsty all the way. When I got to the place, I saw that the long queue was big, but I had to wait in line for the grade inspection and weighing. When it's their turn, they will also suffer from supercilious look. Some tobacco technicians will lower the price and talk for a long time. When they finally got the limited money, it was getting late and they were trying to get home. It's late for dinner, and everyone's body and mind are exhausted to the extreme
All this, even today, is still engraved in my mind, and I can't forget it. It has become a painful, sad and helpless memory, and it has become the original and huge driving force for me or us to resolutely get rid of the miserable life in the countryside at that time.
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